Hey, movie fans! Remember that Robert Frank Capra classic where Jimmy Stewart saves the day by standing up and filibustering a bill he knows in his heart to be bad? Pretty dramatic stuff, and an iconic bit of Authentic American Cornball Political Sincerity. Of course, as we all sorta-kinda know, the rules for filibusters have changed, so instead of One Brave Senator standing up and reading Collected Poems of Leonard Nimoy into the record, the minority party just says “We filibuster thee” and spits three times, and that counts. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, seeing all the stalled legislation and spit covering the Senate floor, hopes to bring back Old School filibusters: You want to stop a bill, you gotta stand up and talk.

So above is the Heritage Foundation’s invocation of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, aimed at Harry Reid’s proposal to change how filibusters work. We will now pause, class, for you to ponder what is wrong with this picture.

Oh, yeah, right. Requiring future “Mr. Smiths” to stand up and talk like in the movie will actually, uh, silence “Mr. Smith” because then he can’t bring the Senate to a halt silently anymore! Harry Reid hates free speech and wants to duct tape Jimmy Stewart’s affable corpse!

The Heritage Foundation is so proud of this image that when a reader suggested it was maybe just a little meaningless, they reblogged the comment with a smart answer:

jasencomstock: “We don’t have a case so look, a movie.”

theheritagefoundation: Sometimes the simplest examples make the best points.

Yes, especially when anyone who’s seen the movie knows that image makes no sense! We guess that the Nino Scalia School of Rhetoric is more influential than we thought!

We look forward to the Heritage Foundation’s next Tumblr post, featuring a still from the movie Bulworth to argue that Loving v. Virginia was an example of judicial overreach.

About the author

Doktor Zoom Is the pseudonym of Marty Kelley, who lives in Boise, Idaho. He acquired his nym from a fan of Silver-Age comics after being differently punctual to too many meetings. He is not a medical doctor, although he has a real PhD (in Rhetoric and Composition).

Always simpletons make stupid excuses for being simple. And stupid, also and too.

DahBoner

Yes, but on the other hand, Loving v. Vagina was a bit of judicial under reach…

zippy_w_pinhead

needs moar judicial reach around…

smashedinhat

Reality? We don't need no stinking reality!

http://wonkette.com/ starfanglednut

Needz moar leather mask and ball gag.

LesBontemps

That's what is wrong with this picture.

zippy_w_pinhead

Mr Smith goes medieval on Washington…

calliecallie

I wish somebody would!

Negropolis

The British did, once. Maybe we can call them back in.

SorosBot

I'm sure the Heritage Foundation's support for the indefensible filibuster is totally based on principal and not politics, and that if the Republicans had the Senate majority with the Democrats constantly filibustering everything they would still oppose a Republican effort to reform the filibuster rules. Right?

HogeyeGrex

Which is why Republicans never, ever threatened to break Senate rules with the "nuclear option" when Democrats had the audacity to filibuster say, a tenth of the number of judicial appointees that the current Republicans have.

SorosBot

And it's not like the media treated the filibusters by Democrats then as a horrible assault on the functioning of the Senate, but then as soon as the Dems took over the Republican filibusters didn't even get called filibusters, but just "a routine procedure requiring 60 votes", as if that was totally normal for everything.

HogeyeGrex

UPPERDOWN!!!

http://dismalpseudoscientist.wordpress.com Rebootably_Joe

IT'S TOTALLY DEMOCRATS FAULT FOR FILIBUSTERING ROBERT BORK FOR THINGS THAT WERE TOTALLY NOT HIS JUDICIAL TEMPERMENT OR ARGUMENTS THAT WOMEN DON'T DESERVE CIVIL RIGHTS.

What ever happened to that guy, anyway?

smellypossum

"Sometimes the simplest examples make the best points."

And sometimes simpletons make no points.

Baconzgood

How about an immage from Vertigo to show what a healthy relationship is?

noodlesalad

Republicans are scared of the old "reading the phone book" filibuster technique because there's so many "ethnic" names in there now. "Abad" "Abadiano" "Abadin" "Abajo"

WHEN DO WE GET TO ADAMS?!?!?!?! AHH I GIVE UP YOUR BILL WINS!!!!!

BaldarTFlagass

And if they say "We filibuster thee" three times, the Senate goes into recess.

LesBontemps

And if they say it three times in a darkened bathroom, Larry Craig appears.

Oh all right, Larry Craig would appear in a darkened bathroom regardless.

"Tell me, Mr. Anderson… what good is a phone call… if you're unable to speak?"

Loch_Nessosaur

Once Jim DeMint takes over at the Heritage Foundation we won't see this level of teh stupidz anymore.

Terry

No, it will be even worse.

Esteev

I just knew you were real!

CrunchyKnee

It is rather cute that the fucktards at Heritage Foundation found an intern to run a bit of Photoshop for them, tho, too.

sullivanst

Oh look, the Heritage Foundation is saying the exact opposite of the truth again.

In other news, the sun rose in the East today.

el_donaldo

O.K. Heritage, that's a start, but if you could somehow photoshop Julie Newmar as Catwoman into that picture, then I'll be completely good.

BornInATrailer

I bet I have whined about the neutered filibuster a dozen times on these comments. I cannot wait for this to get rolled back. And I've got to imagine some Heritage Foundation members are quite embarrassed to see that BS. I mean, the right is supposed to the party of real (old white) men. To whine about actually having to, you know, filibuster when you filibuster must really shrink their nuts. Little bitty baby balls.

The silent filibuster is basically the New Coke of senate rules.

memzilla

If I want to get my political memes from movies, Heritage Foundation, I'll download Nailin' Palin.

Silencing someone is accomplished by making them speak, instead of silently blocking legislation?
There's no way they can make this case, and subsequently defend it, unless they're mocking the feebleminded. Compassionately-conservatively.

HeadsIWin

Now I totally get the Jimmy Stewart appeal.

prommie

Coherence is way overrated. Why, in fact, I owe everything I have today to my incoherent ranting.

EatsBabyDingos

Heritage, where bad ideas go to be exuberantly fertilized with Koch shit.

"Some lawmakers may not realize it, but there's a fine line between raising legitimate objections and simply obstructing business.

"In the Senate, a minority of senators is using the filibuster as a tool to prevent a vote on judicial nominees they dislike. We'll learn soon if the Senate's rules really allow that."

– Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D., President of Heritage Foundation in 2005

BaldarTFlagass

Heritage Foundation should be watching Bob Roberts, not Mr Smith.

commiegirl99

Don't do crack. It's a ghetto drug.

orygoon

The reply should be to shift to a different movie, where Jimmy Stewart guns down the bad guy in the street in order to defend the warmhearted ladies in the bawdyhouse that he inherited, and Henry Fonda drawls "On-lee man I ever knowed who was killed by a pee-can". And we all know what side that bad guy was on, do we not?

sullivanst

Sometimes the simplest examples make the best points.

Well yes, this is true, the point here being: never believe anything the Heritage Foundation says, they're liars and/or idiots.

OneYieldRegular

I can't wait to see what they do with "It's a Wonderful Life."

FNMA

I don't know, but whenever I watch that movie, I always think that Pottersville would be a fuck-ton more fun than Bedford Falls.

SuspectedDemocrat

That's happening in the fiscal cliff negotiations. Boehner is offering fifty cents on the dollar for all your shares.

When I was in the service and we were doing training for shit like damage control and fire fighting and such, we would always get to the point where we had to "simulate" whatever. I guess the Senate has been at "simulated filibuster" for quite a while now.

SexySmurf

If he succeeds, I hope the Heritage Foundation goes with "Harry Reid Shot Liberty (Valance)."

Lizzietish81

Of course the Heritage Foundation is banking on people having never actually seen Mr. Smith, but just know it by reputation, and aren't curious enough to find out for themselves what the movie was about.

Which was their secure base anyways.

calliecallie

I actually would be willing to bet that more people are aware of the movie than are aware of the Heritage Foundation. Suck on that, Heritage.

Callyson

Oh FFS…

/assholes

Pragmatist2

Sometimes the only rational response to these people is to spit and say "F*ck you!"

Tundra Grifter

Is that the same Heritage Foundation who thought it was a great idea to make all those free-loaders purchase health insurance so they wouldn't be feeding at the public trough? Only now that we have a Blah President that's a terrible idea, of course.

Is that the same Heritgage Foundation that purchases "editorial advertising" on Sheer InSannity's and Off-the-Mark's dumb radio shows? They pay money to have positive opinions about them worked into the rants.

decentcitizen

I look forward to the day when elderly men with prostate problems are forced to read phone books for hours to prevent legislation from being voted on. There opposition to this reform indicates they know they couldn't have pulled of the last four years if this had been the prevailing procedural practice.

http://simplyleftbehind.blogspot.com/ actor212

This is what has Republicans pissed…pardon the pun…off. If they actually have to stand in there and show the American people their obstuctionism, they'll start losing followers.

bikerlaureate

That's giving their followers too much credit. The children of their followers, however, might yet be salvaged.

christianmuslin

Meanwhile back to reality: while the republicans in the Senate focus on how to maintain a minority rule filibuster North Korea launches a missle capable of reaching the coast of California while carrying a nuclear warhead. Not to be outdone, House republicans try to make democrats in general and the president in particular share some of the blame when entitlements are reduced in the name of deficit reduction to keep the cuntry from falling over the fiscal cliff.

I have a question: can the democrats win the white house if there is no California?

bikerlaureate

The lurkers among us could easily find out the 2012 final score – Obama 332, Moroni 206.

To be fair, that spit on the Senate floor was pretty slippery and old man McCain kept slipping and crashing into desks…. like 5 times he crashed into the Senate desks. Reid was afraid McCain would bust a hip or sumpthin'.

Allmighty_Manos

If the filibuster is so anti-democratic, why did every other democracy make their system work just like our Senate. Oh wait…

christianmuslin

Meanwhile back to reality: while the republicans in the Senate focus on how to maintain a minority rule filibuster North Korea launches a missle capable of reaching the coast of California while carrying a nuclear warhead. Not to be outdone, House republicans try to make democrats in general and the president in particular share some of the blame when entitlements are reduced in the name of deficit reduction to keep the country from falling over the fiscal cliff.

JustPixelz

Here's the thing.

In Republican World, they don't have a majority in the Senate so want the rules preserved so minority rules.

In Republican World, Obama won the popular vote so they want to change the rules to appoint Electors by Congressional district instead. If that had been done in the last election and Electoral College matched Congressional races, it's President Romney with — wait for it — 47% of popular vote.

In Republican World, 249 Democrats "rammed Obamacare down our throats" but 239 Republicans is "the people have spoken".

Sassomatic

We must silence them in order to hear them.

qwerty42

Hey, the Heritage Foundation has a lot of old white guys in it; they probably all received the same forwarded piece of something (probably something from The Onion or WND) and now they are nearly incontinent over it. So the thing is, they believe this stuff. Cut them some slack; they're olds and this here "internet thing" is a mystery. Except they know that piece of forwarded email they received has to be true. I mean "you can't say it if it isn't true".

Doktor Zoom

Also, too, sorry for the error. Someday I hope to stop confusing the director Frank Capra with the photographer Robert Capa.

Also Jon and Jimmy Stewart.

And Martha and Lindsey Graham.

http://italkyoubored.wordpress.com/ ffredpalakon

My completely inoffensive first thought to this was:

"Harry Reid Wants To Silence Mr. Smith…and Lindsay Graham Wants To Fuck Him In The Ass."

So hot now.

http://howtosavetheworld.ca/ BZ1

Filibluster is the silliest part of the U.S. system (FYI spelled correctly)

Negropolis

If I ever have a chance to filibuster, it will be to spoken word by Bill Shatner.

ttommyunger

So, the Tea Party succeeds in fucking the R's out of the Presidency and several Congressional Seats by virtue of it's bat-shit crazy rhetoric and the Heritage Foundation doubles down by hiring the Senior Tea Party Senator to run it. I'm beginning to grasp a whole new understanding of the term: Think Tank. I'm liking it…